Harper Academic

Messing with the Enemy

Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News

by Clint Watts

On Sale: 06/04/2019

Price: $18.99

Messing with the Enemy

Listen to a Sample Enlarge Book Cover

Messing with the Enemy

Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News

by Clint Watts

On Sale: 06/04/2019

Format:

Price: $18.99

About the Book

A former FBI Special Agent and leading cyber-security expert offers a devastating and essential look at the misinformation campaigns, fake news, and electronic espionage operations that have become the cutting edge of modern warfare—and how we can protect ourselves and our country against them.

Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the cyber and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don’t hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your information and that of your friends and family to work for them through social media, which they use to map your social networks, scour your world affiliations, and master your fears and preferences.

Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government’s hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate’s e-mails. Watts knows how they do it because he’s mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and coopt their efforts.

Watts examines a particular social media platform—from Twitter to internet Forums to Facebook to LinkedIn—and a specific bad actor—from al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian and Syrian governments—to illuminate exactly how social media tracking is used for nefarious purposes. He explains how he’s learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians—and how these interactions have generated methods of fighting back. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.

Critical Praise

“[A] pointed treatise.... [Messing With the Enemy is] a solid, highly useful owner’s manual for a leaky internet—and a damaged democracy.” — Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval and Legendary

“A timely, occasionally chilling account.... Watts combines a down-to-earth voice with an ability to recreate moments of social media troublemaking to discomfiting, informative effect.” — Publishers Weekly

-

Product Details

  • ISBN: 9780062795991
  • ISBN 10: 0062795996
  • Imprint: Harper Paperbacks
  • On Sale: 06/04/2019
  • Trimsize: 5.310 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 0.720 in (d)
  • Pages: 320
  • List Price: $18.99
  • BISAC1 : HISTORY / Military / Wars & Conflicts (Other)
  • BISAC2 : POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism
  • BISAC3 : POLITICAL SCIENCE / Propaganda